Kind today, but not tomorrow.

It is just as well Finn really enjoyed his ski day today as he wasn't going to be getting a season pass for Nevis Range if he didn't. I was worried that he might think snowboarding was only a fairweather sport. Most fields were shut, but Cardrona remained stubbornly open and Finn was up there from 7.30am to 3.30pm with only an hour in the cafe at lunch. The wind howled, visibility was very poor and it was cold. He had a great day, which shows how important the social side is. Down at our level, it rained heavily and hailed stones and was bleak.

It is the first day of spring. It is also 'Random Act of Kindness' day. This was started in 2005 by a guy called Josh who was in a traffic jam in Auckland when he saw an act of road rage and thought what a nicer place it would be if people could be kind to each other. So a group of them got together and campaigned for a day of kindness. So here it is. Mary has done very well as she brought us morning coffee and took my car to the garage and filled it up with fuel. I took Maggie a wee farewell gift, but it wasn't really a random act, so that might not count. Other than that I haven't been particularly kind.

Spooks work colleague, Murray, has caught Sarsha's skin disease. Apparently it is all over Wanaka. Spooks boss came into work, heard about it, washed his hands three times and went home again. We think Sarsha caught it from carrying copious amounts of dirty sheets and towels and Murray probably caught it from a bar stool (the doctor suggested this.)

grateful for:

not having the skin disease

not having the sick lamb which The Turners are nursing as they will all have the skin disease by the morning.

Cleaning Diva

Spook had a nice day for his one day off in 11, if a little blowy. This is the back road that leads to Hawea on his favourite loop. Note the shed/house on the right. Not as pretty as the one that Meg's friend moved into today. I was too late to give them a hand so I went round to their old house and did an hour and a half of very efficient cleaning. I am a changed woman!! Celia is the kind of woman you want to help because you know very quickly that she has a big capacity for friendship.

Finn has got himself all organised for his school snowboarding day tomorrow. He has to be on the school bus at 6.50am. Lesson in the morning and playing in the afternoon . NOt sure if the weather is going to hold for him, so fingers crossed. Meg's day is Thursday. Early nights for us all this week.

30 days till we leave and it is going to be very sad.

grateful for:

all the people who offer Spook a roof over his head. (not that he is allowed to take them up on their offers as he would be too comfy)

The Storm??

Rain, rain, rain. Who said this country was dry? We heard the storm was finally coming in around lunch time. What it was, was a Scottish, blustery day. With heavy rain.

I worked from 8 - 12 noon and Spook had a long and messy day at the factory. He ended his day with a run and a nice wee ray of light. He reckoned he must have seen 100 rabbits, which makes it 100rph.

Meg and I went to Video EAsy to see if we could get a copy of Thelma and Louise. Somebody had already taken it out - we were victims of the rainy day.

I took Anne out for coffee this afternoon to thank her for the invite to Lake Ohau even though we hadn't been able to go. Funny thing is that it was the only ski field open in the South Island.

Spook has made a list of some of the things we need to try and do before his family heads home. Cinema Paradiso is high on the list, so we might go and see The Reader this week. Pizza and a dip at the Oakridge Spa pools. And I want a wee trip to walk along the beach at Bruce's Bay, 2hrs up the road. I haven't seen enough of the magnificent Kiwi surf and the drift wood.

grateful for;

the chance to acclimatise before coming home!!

Thelma and Louise.

Meg wasn't very well at work last night, so Cathy sent her home early with a piece of chocolate cake and instructions to snuggle up and keep warm. This morning she said to take the time to recover and she would see Meg on Tuesday (she's on sick pay). Meg did relax for most of the day and after my run - yes, run - I said we would go over to Ali's mum to return her Sari and give her some flowers as Meg said they were moving to a new house this weekend. I wanted to get it back to her before I didn't know where they had gone. Have to say, Meg and Ali cut quite a dash in the go-cart. Ali is 15 and has got her learners licence, so was competent in the cart. Meg had a shot and they came back exilerhated and laughing. Meg is staying for dinner and Finn has decided to stay the night at John's.

The Japonica is coming into bloom in the warm sunshine. The heavy rain over the last 2 days brought very heavy, but loose snow up at the slopes and we could hear blasting up at Treble Cone all morning as they got rid of the build up.

I asked Meg today what she thought she would miss most when she came home. The summer, she said. Everyone will go straight from school to the wharf and jump in. And then they will all go to New World in their bare feet. She likes that. (I like seeing snowboarders walking through town in their bare feet, with their boards under their arm.) And she loves the skateboarders who use their boards to travel through the town and their dogs to pull them up the hills. (I like that too.)

Ali's mum and dad have bought one of our favourite houses just up the road from here. A long, low shed type building with stone work incorporated, a balcony and looks over a very small, neat vineyard. She said (Celia) the vineyard should give them 360 bottles of Pinot Noir a year. It doesn't come much neater than that (well, 720 bottles would be quite good.) I'm going to give them a wee hand to move on Monday after work, and I'll get a look around. Was definately something wee thought would be great to build at home, if ever Planning Dept would approve of living in a shed/house.

grateful for:

sitting outside having morning tea, drawing, and then still being there to have morning coffee with Spook when he called in from work.

Clean Bill of Health

It rained plenty last night and today. The sun didn't appear until about 4pm - very late for hereabouts.

I had a great nights sleep and felt much better. I picked Sarsha up for work and our conversation would have sounded odd to a bystander.

Mo "I feel much better today, how about you Sarsha?"

Sarsha "I'm still stuffed"

Mo "Really? That's great! I thought it was just my age. Last night, everything ached from my neck, shoulders, back, knees and even my elbows."

Sarsha "Your elbows ache? That's great! I thought my skin ailment had progressed into my bones!"

Mo (as we pull up to our next target) "I'm so pleased you're knackered"

Sarsha (as we walk happily into the next target) "I'm stoked about your elbows."

And then we had a great day - we were so relieved to know that we were not old/terminally ill, and that our ailments were all cleaning related, that we worked with gusto and enthusiasm. It did help that we were working with a builder who's tradesmen are always friendly and chatty. Their Kiwi reserve has lifted now and we felt more like part of a team, rather than the 'wifie's who clean'.

Spook had a long and messy day, so didn't want to come down for the wee pre-drink at Shannon and Steve's before we went to watch Kerry and her team win the basketball final. It was a sociable evening, but Spook was happy to stay home and speak to Uncle D on the phone. Meg stayed at Shannons to keep an eye on Will, their youngest and Finn supported the basketball.

grateful for:

enjoying work.

that Friday night feeling.

Google earth could be forgiven for thinking Lake Wanaka had an Orange Haired Monster.

He wasn't actually rowing today, but as I am short of a picture, I thought I'd post this one which reminds Finn why he is happy to go home. The rowing club AGM is coming up, with the news that rowing starts in September, 2-3 times a week. Amanda, his coach, thought Finn had great potential and being in Scotland means he wont have to try and hide from her in this small town.

He said he felt home-sick when he looked out the window at school and it was raining. He said he liked the rain, but admitted that it wasn't much fun standing out in it at PE today, in his t-shirt and shorts. The radio presenter on The Breeze, was commenting today on what a harsh winter it has been, and so much wetter than normal.......

And Pete phoned Spook today and said to look up http://www.stuff.co.nz/ . He was very excited as it was reporting that Nessie had been spotted on google earth. Spook looked it up and saw the image of a boat going up the Loch!

There are other signs of us having been here for almost a year, as well as Finn's rowing AGM. The Mitre 10 DIY adverts are back on. It does give us a wee sense of belonging to find old favourites back on TV. Meg has a poster of all the Shortland Street stars and is going to frame it at home, so that we can all remember our friends of Kiwi week nights.

I was gocery shopping in New World today when I overheard some Scottish vowel sounds. I caught the mans eye and we chatted. I said he must be from the Central Belt. He was from Shettleston and I said that I had worked there, but lived in Fort William. He laughed and said that he knew The Fort well, and his sister was a GP. He was Mark Feeney and his sister is our own wonderful GP, Elvire Feeney. He knew Joe Tangney well and is a friend of Davie Austin. I did ponder on the long list of ailments I would be taking straight to Elvire and Joe on my return. I also showed him my Off Beat Bikes t-shirt that I was wearing, which Davie had started up, many moons ago.

Meg went to yoga and then detoured on the way home to drop off a pressie to an American friend. Kerry is a good friend of Shannon's and they lived in the same town. Last Saturday, it was Kerry who poured me the champagne which was her favourite tipple in New York. She showed Meg how putting a little apricot or peach juice in it, made it a Belini. Meg thought it tasted delicious and remembered that there was a Schoc chocolate bar at work that said on it's wrapper that it was the perfect complement to champagne. Meg had nipped into work on her way to yoga and bought a bar, and had Cathy wrap it and write on the label "Thankyou for giving me a taste of New York". Then she had Shannon (who always gives her a lift home from yoga) drive her over to Kerry's to deliver it. This girl knows how to get things done.

grateful for:

a dram and a cosy bed - I am knackered. (but not as knackered as Spook, surely, who is to be at work for 7am, these days, to accomodate the skip lorry driver)

Heading West

It rained all night and a loch appeared on the reserve (park) next door. So definately good for the ducks. There are a lot of ducks in Wanaka, but we don't usually see lots of them on this side of town. When you drive along the shore front, you often have to stop and let Mr and Mrs cross the road. There were many lovely couples taking the air yesterday afternoon when I drove home, safe from the hunters that must come shopping in town and feel their trigger fingers twitching as the tourist in front stops to let the ducks cross.

Maggie took me to Hawea for lunch and then drove me up to Makarora which is the first township you come to after you cross over at The Neck, to the Lake Wanaka side. The photo of the road leading straight to the mountains is where you cross over from Lake Hawea to Lake Wanaka. The rain was just starting at Makarora as it is so close to the mountains. We had a lovely afternoon, but will still say our goodbyes next week.

Meg went to work, Finn went to Sam's and Spook didn't come home, so we could really have headed right to the coast!

Sarsha has a sore wrist too, so we conclude from that, that 30hrs is too much cleaning at any age. It does all get a bit quieter now. The night at the Eagles Tribute has been changed to a night in town, so hope Spook wont be too disappointed. Lake Ohau still on hold until a decision can be made. It is pretty windy and I am enjoying the sound of it (better than rain on the roof). The roof is a bit rattly though.

grateful for:

a roof.

an afternoon with Maggie.

1st Position.

Mary's natural Kiwi reserve, does not do posing for camera's!! She was far more fluid on the dance floor, while Sarsha and I pounded off in all the wrong directions. It was good fun. We thought we would be all limbered up for work, but we had to drag our sorry butts around our duties, and couldn't be sure how much the rain was dragging us down, or if it was our over-worked limbs. I have a very sore wrist and a lump has appeared just below my hand. I'm thinking it is arthritis and doesn't like the damp - I'm not sure if I am suited to wet climates. It was ok yesterday. Too much cleaning is the other theory.

The cyclone that was earlier predicted is thinking about coming along and ruining our trip to Lake Ohau. It looks like it may arrive at the weekend. With 6 boys in tow, I don't think we want to get housebound up there. Not that it would be any better with 6 girls. Anne is trying to find out if she can re-schedule for a couple of weeks time. Spook still wouldn't be able to go and Meg and I might not get that day off, so it's a shame after all this great weather and telling you all how it nearly never rains out here. It has continued to rain most of the day. Maggie and I are going to 'do' lunch tomorrow as I can get a half day off, but probably wont head out of town if it is still wet. It will probably be my last chance to meet up with her before she heads off. Then we will have to wait until she and Mike get to Scotland.

I can see Spook checking out cabins and sleep-outs as the rain batters on the roof.

grateful for:

the bedrooms being warmer now so that the children actually leave the room now and then. I daresay it is all been good practice for living in a caravan again.

Namaste, Kimo-sabe.

The photos are the bridge over the Clutha on the back road to Luggate. This is part of a great road cycle loop from Wanaka.

The other is Finn at the x-country, courtesy of Anne, as Spook and I went cycling instead of watching!!! He was 19th out of quite a lot, and did a reasonable time, and enjoyed it.(this was last Thursday).

It was a glorious day and really warm. There is a bit of a rush on now to try and fit in a few things before we go. There's the dancing tomorrow morning for a start. I'm not sure if I will be able to secure a photo of any worth, but you never know. Maggie phoned today in a panic to see if we can drive somewhere I haven't been, for lunch. She is going to the North Island for a month as her daughter is getting married and she will be gone by next Thursday. We are thinking about Makarora, further up Lake Wanaka.

We cleaners are going to have a night out before Sarsha leaves and are planning a night at the Hawea Motor Inn getting down to The Eagles Tribute Band. It's Sarsha's partners night out too, and with a courtesy bus home, it could be fun.

I have to go up Mt Roy on the 4th of September, in sympathy with Lochaber runners, as they will be going up the Ben on The 5th. Spook is hoping to go up on the 5th. I had a limbering up session with Shannon today when I called by and she invited me to join her in a yoga session in her bathroom - ample room, lovely light, and handy if I need a pee. It was 50mins of torture, but did explain Shannons abs and how one doesn't need a multi-gym to do weight training. You just use your own body. Her body is substantially lighter than mine so I was at a distinct disadvantage. Exactly what I should be doing regulary. Shannon will come up the hill with me as we are also running out of time and it seems a long time since we went up there, early in our friendship. I will probably post another picture of her, in a Lochaber running shirt and hope that everyone thinks it's me.

gateful for:

a warm spring that will effectively be our summer.

Megs lovely moist banana cake that she rattled out before tea.

the warm wishes of the warm people that we have finally got to know.

Kiwi Cutting Edge.

I worked today and Spook took the kids up to Cardrona. It was fairly quiet and great conditions. The ice had disappeared under a layer of fresh snow, and it was warm. Spook took a photo of the machine that makes the half pipe. It is Kiwi designed and built and is the only one in the world. The competitors at last weeks Burton Snowboard open, declared it to be the best half-pipe on the planet. That included the opinion of American, Sean White who is allegedly the best snowboarder on the planet. He is othewise known as The Flying Tomato, on account of his flaming red hair. There were some awesome stunts being performed today. Winter Games NZ are on this week. It is the biggest snowsport event outside the Winter Olympics, featuring more than 800 of the globes elite athletes competing in 26 disciplines. Skiers, snowboarders, curlers, skaters and ice hockey players amongst others. The Games will allow all athletes - whether able-bodied or have a disability - to compete together, in alpine skiing and cross-country events. If I get a chance later in the week, I hope to go up and have a look.

Spook will not be going as he is now on for 12 days to cover for Murray's holiday. Just as well it's pretty up there. He wont be able to come to Lake Ohau with us next weekend, even though it should have been his weekend off. Meg, Finn and I will go up with Anne and John to help them celebrate her other son Elliot's 14th birthday. It is up in The Mckenzie High Country, where she has use of a house for the weekend. Meg has still to secure the day off, and will possibly be sorry if she gets it, as there will be 6 boys on the trip - and there is nothing she finds more annoying these days than boys. We will hire ski's and possibly ski for the two days, or do some walking. It will be good to squeeze an extra adventure in.

grateful for:

28.5hrs of cleaning that will pay for my ski hire and passes at Lake Ohau. It is more cleaning than is healthy for any individual, but good to have the hours - it will fade away pretty fast now.

my Ozzie colleague Sarsha, for working so hard and never ever complaining.

A quiet night in with The Munro's.

Risotto Blotto.

Sooooooooooo, it's 11.20pm Saturday night and it's too late to post any pictures. I am sitting up in bed with Meg, eating some iced ginger cake that she brought home from work. She finished early and I picked her up on my way to collect Finn from Sam's house. I left Spook cooking his first ever risotto. But I had to phone him to come and pick us up as I had drunk 2 glasses of bubbly. He couldn't come until the risotto was cooked, by which time he had a very sore wrist and I had had 3 glasses of bubbly. WE then had barbequed steak and chicken and I had to walk home with Meg and put the risotto in the fridge. I'm kindof hoping that it will have that 2nd day lasagne taste. The menfolk refused to come home. Finn is staying the night and Spook has promised to come home after the All Black/Wallaby game is over. He looks very comfy with a bottle of Speights in his hand and I figure he will make it home providing he leaves the Pinot Noir alone. He has the phone number of Sarah in his pocket. We met her at the Indian night and she and her husband have bought the campsite in Hawea. So when he camps there he will be able to have dinner at their house and she has arranged farm work for him to earn his keep when he is on his 4 days off. I did hear Lizzie saying he could stay at their farm too. This is getting far to comfy.
grateful for:
spontaneous nights out - oh, I said that last night too.
Meg and Finn wanting to stay out and party as much as we did - very harmonious.

Finnot Noir - Superb!!

Despite snowboarding today, I feel you have had enough pictures of snow and that I should post a photo of the reason for the late blog - Pinot Noir. I usually pick Finn up from Sam's house on a Friday and get home late, often abandoning Spook as I only nipped down for 5 minutes. Tonight, I sent Spook down and it took 3 bottles of Pinot Noir. Steve and Shannon have promised him some shelter for those nights when the tent starts to feel a little like hardship. Again, I am glad that I am leaving Spook behind for a while so that we are not really saying goodbye to The Turner family. They are going back to America for Christmas and if they can squeeze Spook in, they may drop him off at the airport just to make sure he gets there. I'm not sure that this much comfort, nor indeed fine Pinot Noir, was part of the bargain.

Meg is tired from a full week of work after school. She and I both have a full day of work tomorrow. I still think her day will be a little more pleasant than mine.

Finn had to take his homework to school today. He had to show he could fix a puncture. He had his dad give him a lesson on Wednesday night. John turned up on the way to school with a large roll of coloured paper in his bag. He saw Finn with the bicycle tyre he was planning to take to school and all but scoffed 'everyone will have one of those'. Finn came home with top marks, having aptly demonstrated the removal of the tube and what to do once you had removed it and how to put it back together again. John and Sam got very good marks too, but not the top marks. Sam's dad, Steve, said 'all you really need is a map of how to get to the bike shop, son - that's where I usually take it', but knew that wouldn't be good enough, so had to figure out how to fix a puncture himself, so that he could teach his son. Sam and John are usually the top mark kids, so it was a triumphant Finn that I met at Sams house tonight. All present were kind enought to join him in his celebration.

The snowboarding has improved, despite me falling on the link road on the way to the main slopes. What had been lovely soft snow had become sugar on top and rock solid beneath. My knees took a nasty bang when I tripped over my board and we both spent the rest of the day making sure we didn't fall over, as it was pretty unforgiving. The boarding itself was fun, if it wasn't for the fear factor.

grateful for:

spontaneous nights out.

A Wolf Man in the Making

They had a lovely day today - I say they, meaning me. Yesterday, the manageress at work, gave Mary a big speil about how They' had not left any towels upstairs and, even worse, had rolled the towels downstairs in a totally random manner. We thought she must mean the American snowboarders who had just been living there, but actually she meant us, the cleaners. Mary said she should have known that was what she meant as she has been called 'they' for the last 5 years. I reckoned a wee bit of slack could have been allowed as I had spent a great deal of time under beds hauling out rubbish, on account of the snowboarders not having picked up a thing behind themselves for two weeks, and had pinged M&M's around the place, and Sarsha was off kitchen duties to give Mary's shoulder a break, and had forgotten the special towel folding secret.

We will not be inviting her who can only call us they, to our dancing party on Tuesday.

We did a wee bit of work this morning, and Spook did a 60km road cycle to use up a bit of energy before meeting me for lunch and an afternoon mountain bike ride out west of Wanaka. We found this tail bone that looked like a wolf. We need to have as many wee adventures as we can before our temporary parting.

Spook has had some more ideas on his accomodation and fancies living in his tent. Each campsite has a different ambience and he reckons he could live around the town for his 4 days on and live wherever he fancies on his 4 days off. I will be at home, living the life of the struggling single mother and he will be painting an image of a man living on the edge.............

grateful for:

Time with my husband before he goes ferral

Sarsha coming round and cutting my hair

Sunset Spook

Working day for everyone, so we just took some photos of the work situation. What I do at A and B is not of much interest, but the journey from A to B is worth a look, especially on a lovely day. I love the long dirt roads around the back of Wanaka, which lead to this newly built farmhouse. There is a lot of cleaning in here, but that is it finished now. Mary has been told by physio not to use her arm as it wont heal if she doesn't rest it. Sarsha paid $115 to be told she has an infectious rash and bed bug bites. Her partner doesn't have any, so we wonder if it is all the big piles of dirty sheets we lug about.
Meg hated me taking a picture of her cleaning the floor of her pretty little kitchen, so I had to wait until she had finished. The wide road and mountains was taken at 3.15pm just before I drove past the school, which is out of sight down the road a wee bit.

Spook, well, just as we think the sun is setting on his NZ experience, we decided to leave him behind for a while longer. It suddenly made sense for him to remain here to pay off the bond that we owe for leaving early. As it is the family that make living here so expensive, we intend to find him a sleepout, and let him eat noodles for 10 weeks. It is $340 rent for this house and $300 for food, so he could spend that on the bond each week and pay it off in no time, train his butt off and enjoy a beautiful spring. I'm not really ready for NZ to end iether and if we leave him here, there will be a piece of the family with more than a toe dipped in. If we all stay, we don't have enough money, if we all come home, there is no way to pay the bond without using our savings. This way, he gets a 10 week adventure to top it all off and still has all our expenses for coming here paid for. His boss is delighted with this compromise, so we all win and the children and I have to view it as another stage in the adventure. We were already planning to be 5 weeks without him when we were coming home for a holiday, we just double that time and have him as a Christmas present. As long as his sleepout is not too comfy and he doesn't get too used to the bachelor existence.........

grateful for:

our strong relationship and independant natures.

Calm before the Storm?

Rumour has it we are to get a cyclone at the weekend. Hard to imagine at the moment. But if we don't get snow, the ski season will close early. There is also an increased danger of Avalanche just now and there have been 3 deaths from them this year. (None at Cardrona).

Finn is still fervently chasing his tolerance pay, for lack of other opportunities.

Meg is working extra this week to help Pip who is covering for Cathy, who is on holiday.

Spook went to work at 6am, came home at 6pm and went back to work again. There is little opportunity for photos other than sticking the camera out the window. I do take mine to work sometimes, thinking there will be an inspired moment, but it's heads down and on with it. Neither Mary or Sarsha are particularly well. Mary is suffering wear and tear from more cleaning than people are meant to do. The sale is looking good and she is loving her Propagation course with plans for the new 20 acres at home. Sarsha has been run down for a week and a half and just has to keep it going until she goes to Fiji in 3 weeks. They figure I have to get my work ethic up to speed before going home as I will need to work much harder there, so there is no sympathy for me.

It's cross country week at school, so the children have been in training and the final is on Thursday. Spook and I are both off, but have to go in disguise as Meg is forbidding us from being there.

I was asking Finn how his day is broken up. He reads after his Whanau (fano = Maori for family = registration, but has children from all age groups so that everyone knows a big variety of people, encouraging support in the school for younger kids). Then they do a bit of work, then they get some brain food and eat it while reading again (the teacher also has a snack and reads her book at the same time), then they do some more work, there are various breaks and lunch, and then more brain food later in the afternoon along with more reading. The children all seem to get through a lot of books. I asked him if his literacy class had helped his reading. He didn't know, but said that it was great to do your work in a class where others understood the struggle and never looked stunned at the stuff you didn't know.

Wimbeldon College is visiting today and there have been various sporting competitions between them. Mary left work early to go and see if her daughters netball team could beat 'The Poms'. Be good if Lochaber High School could come over!!

grateful for:

Sam Turner for introducing Finn to Robert Muchamore books - there are 10 in the series and he has almost finished the 2nd with the 3rd lined up waiting to go. He can't wait to find out who gets expelled next and who snogs who.

The Tui

http://www.nzbirds.com/birds/birdsong.html courtesy of Robbi - this is the song bird which entertains me at work.

there were 3 clicks on the ads yesterday which earned me a massive US$3.85 (this is big bucks, really). what inspired the clicks? I'm hoping the Uk ads are less about urine removal and more about a fine education, starry skies and tolerance. WE are just not picking up on these positives over here!!!

Spring has sprung the grass has ris - I wonder what a Tui is?

1. the children trying to buy back their tolerance pay
2. the house that reminded Spook of ours
3. where Lake Wanaka drains into the Upper Clutha, with Josh's old campsite just to the right of the outlet.

An all work and no play day, with me clocking a magnificent 7hrs of cleaning and Spook coming home for tea and back out to work. He has to go in at 6am tomorrow for tank cleaning.

Otherwise the day had very spring-like qualities again - dry, windless and tweeting birds. Always gives me that optimistic feeling that we get back home with a day like that.

Finn has stumbled upon the origins of the word 'nipple'. He has recognized a similarity in shape between the nipple and the mountain. Mt Everest is the biggest mountain in the world and is in Nepal. With his Dyslexic ear, he figures the words are probably spelt the same. A fine example of how his education is developing.

Spook and I still throwing ideas around with some creative plots for the evacuation!

grateful for:

That black and white bird that looks like a magpie, but I think is a Tui, and has a beautiful voice.

Caffeine Tonic.

Spook went to work and I stayed home with the lovely children. There was no particular push to go snowboarding, which was fine as mine is broken so it was economical not to go. Meg always thinks she wants a nice day at home after work - there is a long life ahead of her yet!! With nothing better to do, they had lot's of time to be uncivil to each other and then had the nerve to ask what had happened to their tolerance pay!! I informed them that their father and I had drunk it in the shape of excellent kiwi coffee, which we had earned in our tolerance of them. It was so bad at one point that I had to go for a walk with Finn and then come home and go for a run with Meg. Finn loved the one to one chance to do some talking and marvelled at how a simple comment on one subject ended with talking about something completely different with lot's of stuff in the middle. Meg ran well and proved that she had become fitter since being here. They go off to school so happily and always seem to have had a good day, that I forget they actually do anything constructive there. The relaxed Kiwi style stikes again.

grateful for:

them giggling happily together at the end of the day - why must they torture me?

Chocolatt.

I called in to Meg's work after my own, to buy one or two wee gifts. She was busy making price labels. While I was there, I took a photo of the lavendar room, where you can drink your chocolate on rainy days. Instead of coming home with a kettle of hot chocolate today, she came home with Chocolatt, the movie, which plays most days on the screen in the shop. Today, it was images of Chagall' paintings that was on the screen. So we had a lovely evening with Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp. Cathy has to work very hard to bring such sensitivities out in the South Islanders, but then so did the heroine in Le Chocolaterie.

Spook went out on his bike over the sticky woods and Finn, John and Sam went down to the lakeside to build a den.

We flew through our work in the cleaning world today. Sarsha only has about 3 weeks left so we will have to put a date on our dance off soon. How I managed to spend 10 months with Mary and, although I knew she danced twice a week, not know that she had done her ballet exams as a young girls and her jazz ones as a young woman, I've no idea. There is very little good stuff I have done, that I don't tell everyone about within the first week of knowing me - if not the first conversation! So now I have committed myself to dancing with a beautiful 25yr old Australian and an extremely well versed Kiwi. With the mung beans and alfalfa sprouts, there will be enough wind to propel me accross the room at high speed and everyone else out the door.

grateful for:

the beauty of Johnny Depp.

a yummy lasagne for tea.

a nice glass of red.

Parsely, Sage, Rosemary and Mung Beans.

I don't tend to re-read my postings, but a quick glance at the google ads, did make me wonder about the content. No wonder no one clicks on the ads. Pet Smells, Odour Control, Urine Remover and Californian Smells were all on offer after yesterdays notes.

Mary was able to reassure me that my mis-spellings were not totally off the mark. She said that the clock on the hillside is not a coincidence, as it nestles amongst the Thyme. It used to be the 2nd biggest clock in the world, after Big Ben.

Spook went up to Cardrona today and had a cool dude day of snowboarding. Very busy and sugary snow, but got loads of runs in. I will post his photo of the half pipe tomorrow, where the Burton Snowboarding Champs were going on.

I filled in a job application after work, as part of the coming home process. Spook was questioning the wisdom of such a move as he played in the sunshine!

Finn went off to Sam's house and refused to come home.

Meg came home from work full of the joys of life. As soon as she got to work, Cathy presented her with a piece of chocolate cake that she had kept in the fridge specially for her.

Dunedin is building a new stadium to replace Carisbrook. They are planning a Tattoo in the style of the Edinburgh one, to increase it's reputation as the Edinburgh of the South, and to help promote the new stadium. The only things that make Dunedin like Edinburgh are the street names - Princes St, George St, Murrayfield St (where Carisbrook the rugby stadium is), Costorphine, Musselborough. And there are a lot of Pipers there.

Spring must be here as the sheep have been sheared and the radio is advertising garden products. Wouldn't it be great if Spring came in the middle of February at home?

grateful for:

the simplicity of chopped purple onions in passata - don't ask me why, but I figure we need to get healthy and try and look like we have blossomed in New Zealand, with it's reputation for athleticism and healthy living. So I threw some alfalfa sprouts and mung beans in too. That may have something to do with why Finn refused to come home.